cleaning & organizing throughout the week

i am not a cleaner. let me just get that out there right now. most of the time our floors are covered in a thick layer of dust & muddy paw prints. often our kitchen table has a cup or two & my latest project scattered about it with a vase of flowers for good measure. i feel like i can admit that to you, though.

here's the thing. this past weekend was a cleaning spree of sorts. i scrubbed the kitchen floors, i folded all of our clothes. i even organized. the. pantry. i know. i purchased some beautiful bottles just before christmas as a bit of inspiration to get the pantry in working order. it took almost two months to get to the task as the bottles just sat in my office, but finally! our pantry is organized, cleaned & functional. it feels great, too!

as you may know, i am all about changes. i want to change! i realize that our house will never look perfect, but i am scheming up ways to make our home just a little more clean throughout the week. perhaps a cleaning schedule will work? chores for each day?

i would love to hear your thoughts on the ways you keep your home functioning throughout the week. i would love to hear what big chores you do & when each week. let me know. i can't wait to hear your thoughts.

8 comments:

What sweet little bottles, and perfect for spices! I, in contrast, am a hyper-cleaner/organizer. My mind is not at rest when there is clutter and mess around me, and so each day when I get home I take about 15 minutes to pick up and clean things I left in piles during my morning rush. I do a few dishes, put up clothes, straighten the curtains and maybe dust off a few surfaces before sitting down to homework or dinner. My floors, however, are a different story...in that case, I just don't clean them until I can't.possibly.stand.it anymore. That's not a strategy I recommend!

This has been on my mind lately, since I just moved to a town home from a tiny apartment, and so suddenly I have two stories of rooms to clean instead of just one! I try to do a little bit every day. I don't get everything done every week, and that's ok - I pick the most important things and focus on those, which means my bathroom floor does NOT get mopped every week! ;) Right now my cleaning schedule looks like this: Monday- laundry day; Tuesday- clean the two bathrooms (if nothing else, then a quick wipe-down of sink, vanity, and toilet, and a scrubbing of the toilet bowl); Wednesday- clean downstairs (kitchen and living room—mostly this means dusting, mopping the kitchen floor, and cleaning out the windowsills and window tracks); Thursday- clean bedrooms/upstairs (vacuum, clean window tracks, dust, tidy); Friday- clean the stairs and landings (vacuum stairs, mop wood floor on lower landing, dust bookshelves on upper landing).

I do a basic cleaning of the kitchen at least once a day (dishes & wiping of counters), since that is the area in which I am most anal.

I have a lot of health problems and energy issues, so a cleaning schedule has to be fairly short and sweet in order for it to be sustainable for me.

hey, did you know that january 23rd was national handwriting day? thought of you. and your wonderful handwriting on the bottles and jars in your pantry. :) i'm inspired by your cleaning inspiration! i have thus far determined that friday is clean-the-bathroom day, and i'm growing in laundry being sort of daily, but i have lots to learn. this season, however, has been one of learning how to plan meals and weeks, which i've really enjoyed. i think it may be the only way to survive the two-boy-babe life :)

Hi Natalie,I just came across your blog this week, and am so glad I did. I'm almost exactly like erinrosalita - everything but the floors gets cleaned and tidied in short little bursts throughout the week. Really, it's amazing what you can do in two or three minutes! I find that I always overestimate the amount of time something I don't want to do will take (i.e. it will take FOREVER to clean the floor) and I always spend more time thinking about how long it will take than it would actually take to get it done. Realizing that has helped things get done in my house. I'm looking forward to reading along. Take care!

This post made me long so deeply for a home... something I have sacrificed for now to travel. In Antarctica, I have a cozy little room shared with my love, but there are no darling spice bottles, or kitchen tables for flowers. Thanks for giving me these precious glimpses into home life.

I tidy up every day, usually twice - once before/during the kids' naptime, and once before bed. I don't like waking up to dirty dishes and an unswept floor, so those are daily tasks for me. Vacuuming the rugs and couch is once a week, and scrubbing toilets and sinks once a week, usually weekends. Laundry is every three days, it seems, to keep Scott's uniforms clean. For me, having a clean (or at least tidy, I only mop about once a month) space greatly contributes to my peace of mind. I love those little bottles, by the way - good work on the pantry!